Product placement

The Twilight saga is coming to an end with the last movie in cinema “Breaking Dawn part 2” but today I’m not going to write any reviews on the new movie just yet. I would rather focus on the wedding of Bella Swan in “Breaking Dawn part 1” last year. With the Twilight saga’s being a world phenomenon, the wedding of Bella Swan and Edward Cullen in the film was highly anticipated long before it was shown to the public in 2011. Everyone, especially the fans of the books and the movies, was curious what Bella would wear in her big day.

Consequently, the product placement in the wedding scene of the film was attracting the public and many brands took advantage of this kind of positive publicity. As we could see on the movie, the bridal gown was every girl’s dream and the wedding shoes captured the eyes of many soon-to-be-brides. Bella’s engagement ring and the heirloom hair comb she wore on the wedding scene were also breathtakingly beautiful. 
 

      Carolina Herrera’s long sleeved lacy low-backed wedding gown
 

Manolo Blahnik’s exclusive Swan Embellished Satin Pump

          The Gilded Lily’s hair comb

Infinite Jewelry Co.’s engagement ring

Other than the large profit that the movie made in 2011, it brought big business opportunities for brands like Carolina Herrera, Manolo Blahnik, etc. and several businesses having theirs products featured on the movie. And if one can’t afford authentic products of these brands, there are always replicas of these products offered on the market.

There is no doubt in my mind that this kind of advertising will prosper and bring much more profit to businesses if they apply this marketing strategy in the next movie phenomenon.

(Source: http://productplacement.biz/201111243786/branded-entertainment/twilight-breaking-dawn-product-placement.html)

MARKETING STRATEGY: GOING VIRAL

Just like any normal day at home, I surfed the Internet and stumbled upon quite an interesting public service advertising campaign of Metro Trains Melbourne. The campaign has been created to raise public awareness about train accidents. Unlike other similar campaign, the campaign takes advantage of ‘viral communication’ to attract people’ attention and it has actually turned out to be a massive success.

The message of the campaign is reflected upon its viewers through a viral music video. The video is called “Dumb ways to die”, featuring cartoon characters whose lives come to an end because they did something dumb enough to get them killed. At first, the message “Be safe around trains” is unclear but towards the end of the video, people take notice it. At the beginning of the video, “dumb ways to die” vary from “set fire to your hair”, “poke a stick at a grizzly bear”, “eat medicines that’s out of date“, “use your private parts as piranha bait”, etc. but the ending part focuses on the danger when people are being careless around trains: “stand on the edge of a train station platform”, “drive around the boom gates at a level crossing”, “run across the tracks between the platform”. The message is serious but the song doesn’t sound like a long, boring lecture about safety awareness. On the other hand, the song is very catchy, at the same time memorable. I bet everyone is singing along with the song after hearing it and will never forget about the message hidden inside. The characters are also the cutest and funniest I have ever seen in a safety warnings clip!!!! The video has been climbing to the top of every chart from the release date and has reached 1,593,486 shares. So big an impact it has that a website associated with the campaign has been created to educate people about safety around trains: http://dumbwaystodie.com/.
The campaign has created an influential phenomenon when McCann Melbourne made the “Dumb ways to die” video a big success. There is no doubt that the message from Metro Trains Melbourne has been well-received by the public and the number of train accidents will decrease with the existence of the video.

AND FINALLY, HERE IS THE VIDEO:

 

 

 Source: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/1161194/

Apple's Brand

As much I'd love to criticize Apple about some aspects of my iPad, I still have to admit that Apple has a large number of customers that have been loyal to the brand years by years. Undeniably, Apple has created a brand image so strong that no one can be able to resist.

As the years go by, Apple marketing strategies have been successful in creating emotional connection with its customers. Unlike other brands that only promise customers high-quality products, Apple offers its customer brand personality associated with its products: “lifestyle; imagination; liberty regained; innovation; passion; hopes, dreams and aspirations; and power-to-the-people through technology”. Using Apple products is regarded as a symbol of “coolness” in society nowadays. And people are drawn to being cool, being stylish and being modern. Therefore, in people’ minds, Apple embodies all of the personalities people dream themselves to have. By taking advantage of that, Apple has constantly improved its brand image to attract more customers’ attention and interest in the brand.

Besides bringing to customers high-innovative iPhones, iPods, iPads, Mac, etc., Apple is also concentrated on developing its applications and utilities to satisfy every customer. Siri, iCloud are the newest development in technology of Apple and have been highly valued from the day they appeared on Apple devices. Specifically, Siri represents speech interactivity - a personal assistant provided by Apple to its customers. This development enables them to speak to theirs Apple’s devices to give orders, a rather convenient way to get the job done in a couple of minutes. While Siri has been a big success, Apple is also introducing iClouds, which is used for sharing contents across customers’ Apple devices. The brand experience has been heightened like never before. Customers are now more and more eager to purchase Apple devices to experience the new technological advances every day.

Personally, I have been a long-time customer of the brand. Even though I hate some limitations coming from using Apple's products, I still only think of purchasing its devices when looking for mp3 players and tablets. With 8 years of purchasing its products and suggesting them to acquaintances and relatives, I, myself, do make a good case of Apple's loyal customer.

(Source: http://www.marketingminds.com.au/branding/apple_branding_strategy.html)

Unethical marketing in 2 large international companies

1. Nestle

The unethical marketing practice of Nestle in developing countries came to light in the 1970s when it was charged for wrongfully marketing its baby milk formulas. This marketing campaign of Nestle led millions of mothers and workers to believe that Nestle milk was better than breastfeeding. Additionally, when the baby milk was advertised in over 20 countries, the instructions and warnings for using it were neither clear nor understandable, resulting in the deaths of countless babies. International boycott has been established to force Nestle to change its policies and misconducts over the years until now.

2. Phillip Morris – Marlboro

As the largest manufacturer of cigarettes, Phillip Morris is responsible for the deaths of thousands young adults due to smoking and related diseases. When looking into the marketing strategies of this large international company, we can find some staggering issues. Firstly, the company has exploited young girls to hand out Marlboro cigarettes for children, resulting in smoking behaviors of several underages. Furthermore, for a long time, Phillip Morris has invaded private researches on children’s additive habits to find measures enhancing cigarettes’ sales. On top of that, using Marlboro cigarettes are advertised in newspapers, magazines and multiple forms of media advertisements. Consequently, teenagers are encouraged to smoke Marlboro cigarettes on a large scale.

(Source: http://www.ethicalshopping.com/)

Studio Dance Pit

This week, I had the opportunity to listen to a presentation of Riikka-Liisa Kuoppa about her new dance studio, Studio Dance Pit. After the presentation, I have gained some major knowledge about marketing from her experiences in building a business of her own.

In Rikka-Liisa's dance studio, she works as a professional instructor but she is also the business's manager. As the manager, she has the responsibility to keep the business running smoothly and well-organized. In order to do that, she has developed a mutually beneficial relationship with other businesses in different fields. Consequently, her students (clients) are offered with many interests when learning at Studio Dance Pit. For example, Studio Dance Pit is now cooperating with Arabeski Oy, a supplier of dance equipment. By going to Studio Dance Pit, its students are introduced to Arabeski Oy to buy high-quality dance equipment and necessary supplies for their studies. In exchange, whenever Studio Dance Pit is in need of some dance equipment for its performances, Arabeski Oy provides them. The students, at the same time, buy their suitable equipment with no fear of bad qualities or over-prices. Moreover, her partnerships with many businesses like Salon Pia Tommiska, Vero Moda, Ykkönen, etc. enables her to give benefits and discounts to attract people to come to her Studio Dance Pit. Nevertheless, she also cooperates with her competitors to diversify her dance classes. On a regular basis, she invites the instructors from her business’ competitors to teach her students some special classes that Studio Dance Pit hasn’t offered. Her students can benefit from these classes and see that her studio is diversely influenced and every single day they can learn something new and exciting, not only daily dance courses that Studio Dance Pit is right now offering. In return, Rikka-Liisa and Studio Dance Pit’s instructors go to her competitors’ classes to teach their students. This relationship benefits not only the students themselves but also the businesses enormously to promote their images. Additionally, Studio Dance Pit always organizes many different activities for their students and the communities, such as dancing Flashmob in Tykkimäki park and Veturi shopping centre, BuzzerBeaters cheerleading in Kouvot basketball games and so on. In the near future, Studio Dance Pit is going to have other dance performances in Manskissa shopping center and supermarket. These activities bring Studio Dance Pit many attentions, leading to enrollments of new students and the formation of potential partnerships.

Apparently, Rikka-Liisa’s marketing plans for Studio Dance Pit has turned out to be a mass success since more and more people are signing up for her classes and spreading a good word about her business, Studio Dance Pit. 
Further information about her Studio Dance Pit can be found here at: http://www.studiodancepit.fi/.

Market-orientation or product-orientation?

Nowadays, many companies and organizations adopt marketing-orientation and product-orientation to develop their businesses. Marketing-orientation is simply stated that the companies are focusing on the needs and wants of their customers. What the customers want, the companies provide. They realize that the customers play a significant role in their businesses. Without the profit gotten from the products paid by the customers, the end is inevitable for any companies. On the other hand, many companies and organizations focus on developing their products rather than paying attention to the customers. Behind this product-orientation comes the thought that good products with satisfactory price will be welcomed by customers needless of marketing strategies. In the past, that was the way businesses operated. And it would be as simple as that if competition didn't arise and the market wasn't so brutally changing every minute. As far as I'm concerned, companies and organizations will be well-equipped if they adopt both marketing and product-orientation. First, they need to do market research to know what the customers are interested in. This is when marketing strategies are needed. And depending on the market testing, the companies develop the products that will bring the highest profit to them. The product-orientation takes place in this production process to ensure that the products to customers come out with the best quality with the lowest cost possible. Then the marketing campaign for the products is required to present them to the public, or simply called, the potential customers. The marketing campaign includes many different advertising plans such as TV, posters, promotion, attractive placement of the products, etc. After successfully selling the products to the customers, companies get back the capital investment they initially put into the production and advertisement of the products and some profit. At the same time, market specialists must get the feedback about the products from the customers and send them back to the companies for further development of their products and expansion of the market areas in the future. The companies therefore operate smoothly and coherently when adopt both marketing-orientated and product-oriented strategies.

One example of customer-orientation and product-orientation I would like to mention here is a fashion brand named Forever21 (F21). From my experience of being a customer of the brand, I think that its market-orientated and product-oriented strategies are quite good. Its marketing campaign is wide-spread, from its own retail stores to its websites. The stores and website are decorated beautifully and conveniently for the use of customers. In its retail stores, the employees are well-mannered, friendly and helpful and the clothes are put in order. The online shopping experience is quite nice, too. F21 offers everything its retail stores have online and the paying methods are easily executed. Consequently, F21 makes the buying experience feel nice and comfortable. At the same time, it creates qualified products and is constantly improving its lines to meet customers’ demands and needs. As in the fashion industry, trends are changing in the blink of an eye. Therefore, F21 keeps track of them and provides its customers with the latest styles. But the price of F21’s products is moderately reasonable and fits the budgets of middle-class customers, the majority of the society. Promotions and sales are given to customers frequently and customers’ services are available almost every day, which form customers’ satisfaction and loyalty to the brand itself.  

Overall, I think that the best way to make successful companies is to integrate both marketing orientation and product orientation because “Market orientation gets the right product: product orientation get the product right” (source: businesscasestudies.co.uk).